Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a wiper apparatus. More particularly, it relates to a wiper apparatus which has a beautiful appearance while preventing the flow of an arm piece, reduces an amount of inside/outside exposure of a wiper arm, and reduces costs and weight.
Description of Related Art
Generally, a wiper apparatus 15 installed in a vehicle is provided with a wiper blade 20 at one end of a wiper arm 10, and the wiper arm 10 reciprocatively rotates to remove rainwater and foreign matters attached to a windshield 25 of the vehicle and ensure the visual field of the driver.
Here, the wiper arm 10 includes an arm head 13 that is fixed to a shaft of a pivot installed in the vehicle pivot and rotates, and an arm retainer 12 that is connected to one end of the arm head 13 and rotates at a constant angular range along with the arm head 13.
Moreover, the wiper blade 20 is assembled to the other end of portion of the arm retainer 12.
Meanwhile, the arm retainer 12 is rotatably mounted on the arm head 13 so as to be able to replace or repair the wiper blade 20, and an arm piece 11 is provided at the other end of the arm retainer 12 so as to be able to easily replace the wiper blade 20.
However, as shown in FIG. 1A-FIG. 1D, since it has a structure coupled by the press fixing after the arm piece 11 is inserted into the arm retainer 12, an outline step portion occurs due to the thickness of arm retainer 12 that surrounds the outside of arm piece 11.
Therefore, separation occurs in a connecting portion of the arm retainer 12 to which the arm piece 11 is connected, by an external force generated in the windshield 25 with a long-period use by the step portion of the arm piece 11 and the arm retainer 12, and thus, the arm piece 11 moves. Accordingly, there is a problem in which the wiping performance of a wiper blade 20 connected to arm piece 11 is degraded and a noise occurs.
Meanwhile, a spring S1 is provided in the connecting portion between the arm retainer 12 and the arm head 13, and elastic force acts on the arm head 13 in a direction which presses the wiper blade 20 to the windshield 25 of the vehicle.
Here, the elastic force can act in a direction in which the arm retainer 12 is away from the windshield 25 of the vehicle by the spring S1 according to the relative position of the arm retainer 12 and the arm head 13. Such a phenomenon is defined as a Lock-back.
That is, as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, the connecting portion between the arm head 13 and the arm retainer 12 is formed so that one hook of the spring S1 is fixed to a rivet b1 of the arm retainer 12 side and the other hook is U-shaped hooked to a rivet c of the arm head 13 side to be able to keep the elastic force when the arm retainer 12 rotates around the rotary shaft a1.
At this time, when the arm retainer 12 goes beyond a neutral shaft CL1 on the connection line between the rotary shaft a and the arm head 13 side rivet c by the elastic restoring force of the spring S1 pulled when rotating the arm retainer 12, the restoring force of the opposite direction is lost, and the lock-back retention force is generated in a travel direction.
In this way, in order that the arm retainer 12 enters a region having the great lock-back retention force through the neutral shaft CL1, it is necessary to connect the arm head 13 side rivet c1 with the spring S1 so that the U-shaped hook H1 rotating together does not interfere with the rotary shaft a1, and it therefore needs to be formed by the U-shaped hook H1.
However, since an interval between the windshield 25 and the U-shaped hook H1 needs to be 7 mm or more due to the shape of the U-shaped hook H1, and the space between the arm retainer 12 and the windshield 25 opens by 17 mm or more, the inside/outside exposure of the wiper apparatus 15 is excessive, which may become a cause of the fault due to rainwater or external factors.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.